Alleged Robber Refuses Court

By Samuel Newhouse for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Still from the security camera of the alleged attacker putting the elderly woman in a choke hold

CROWN HEIGHTS — The man allegedly caught on videotape robbing an elderly woman in a Crown Heights elevator last summer was scheduled to appear Monday in Brooklyn Supreme Court for a pretrial hearing. The defendant, however, refused to appear via video, as scheduled.

Cornelius Abson, 37, was going to appear on video during this hearing on charges of burglary as a hate crime. But he reportedly refused to appear on camera. Justice Martin Murphy adjourned the case until June 24, when Abson must physically appear. Abson was arrested last summer after video footage showing a man brutally robbing Lillian France, 85, was shown on local news programs and web sites. A detective who had arrested Abson for a previous robbery said he recognized the man on the video footage to be him.